Hot Chocolate at a Cafe

Hot chocolate at the cafe on the corner of my block is made with real chocolate melted into steamed whole milk, not powder from a packet. A first sip coats your tongue with a thickness that tells you this is a completely different drink from what you get at a chain. Wide and shallow, the ceramic mug has a chip on the handle. On the surface of the chocolate a thin skin forms as it cools, and I like peeling that skin to the side with my spoon and finding the hotter liquid underneath. Run by the same family for 15 years, the cafe uses a recipe that came from the owner's mother in Oaxaca. Hot chocolate there is mixed with cinnamon and sometimes chili, and this version has both, a warmth at the back of the throat that's not spicy but present. I go there on Sunday mornings when it's cold outside and the windows are fogged and the radio is playing norteño music quietly enough that I can hear the milk steamer from across the room. The combination of details makes the drink taste better than it would if I made the exact same recipe at home. At $5, it's less than the least interesting drink at the coffee shop on campus, and nobody is in a hurry.